Check & Mate – Ali Hazelwood

Every move counts nowadays. Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Or maybe not?

Title: Check & Mate
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Published: November 2023
Pages: 320
Publisher: Best of YA (I read this book in Dutch)

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays. After the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning bad boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone—especially Mallory. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash prizes and, despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is hotter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce(-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)

Can you believe I’ve never read a book by this author until this one? I received the book from a friend for my birthday, so I could finally read her work. The book itself was already a present, but publisher Best of YA (Dutch publishing house) made it even more so with the stunning colours for sprayed edges! Maybe a little surprise party? Because once I started reading, I was very surprised by the story and especially the main character.

In Check & Mate we follow Mallory Greenleaf. She used to love chess, but that is long gone. Chess is a forbidden subject in the Greenleaf household. When she is dragged along against her will by her best friend to a charity tournament where she has to play chess and also wins, her love for the sport is rekindled.

From the very first page I was sucked in by the story and as I just mentioned, I was surprised. I did not expect the kind of life that Mallory (Mal) leads. I don’t often read the blurb before I start a story (I just check genres and reviews in general), but in this case I did and I thought I already knew a lot about the book. I thought I was going to read something about a hobby gone wrong and a romantic story. Wow, I was sorely mistaken! Yes, there is romance, but you first read about Mal’s tough life. Quite lonely, as she takes care of her two younger sisters and sick mother. She even decided not to go to college after high school in order to continue earning money for groceries, the mortgage and everything her sisters ask for.

But when chess comes back into her life, Mal encounters herself in a whole new way. It really feels like Mal has no choice but to go back to chess and I want to compliment the author on that, because she described it so oppressively that you as a reader are also sucked into the story. The only option for Mal is to go backwards, at least if she doesn’t choose chess, because that’s her only way to make progress in her life. As a reader, I sympathised with Mal not only because of her home situation, but also because of her future that is so uncertain.

For the most part, I don’t have many comments about the structure of the story. There are two points that bothered me and felt to me like: let’s rush this story! There is a huge structure in the story around Mal’s home situation, but it lacks a lot. We get to know the main character as someone who regularly sacrifices herself to take care of the family, but is this appreciated by her family? Nope. An 18-year-old young woman decides to risk her life and future for her family and is simply treated like dirt. When Mal can afford good medicine for her mother, so that she can take care of her youngest daughters, she no longer involves Mal in the family?! And in the end, Mal is expected to say “sorry” to everyone. No, I don’t buy it. The situation is incredibly complex and the author chose the easy way out.

Let’s stick to my first point for a moment, because what I mentioned about the family, I also want to say about her best friend. Why is she angry? Mal contacted her, but her friend ignored her. I really hate these characters who should actually be the most important figures in Mal’s life. Perhaps the author deliberately chose that, so that a large part of the chess people feel like family. But I still think that the author made it too easy for herself.

I can be brief about the second point, the ending was just too fast and it didn’t come together nicely. Nolan, the love interest, on the other hand, was in my eyes the saving angel of the story. After all, the meeting between the two characters ensures that Mal chooses for herself for the first time in a long time. In addition, he is the only one who can both challenge and care for Mal. The other chess players who are close to the two in a friendly way are very warm personalities (right from the beginning or later in the story). This allowed me to enjoy the story immensely, despite my criticisms.

Another thing I really like is the way sexism is addressed. Many STEM subjects/professions are overloaded with men and not many women, just like in chess. On the other hand, this is my last criticism, I felt like the author was overcompensating in other areas. There were too many pop culture references. Unfortunately, many of those references will no longer be relevant in two or three years.

Conclusion
This book had the potential to be a high flyer, but unfortunately it was an anticlimax in my opinion. The concept, Mal’s backstory and the character of Nolan had everything to make it a fantastic deep layered YA. Despite my points of criticism I enjoyed reading it immensely and look forward to reading more of Hazelwood’s work.

Love,